Patrick Stewart Reckons Supporting Gay Rights Is ‘Natural’ For Him

Patrick Stewart has long shown his gay friendly credentials – and even had bestie Ian McKellen officiate at his wedding. Indeed it’s resulted in him being mistaken for gay himself at time, most notably in a 2014 Guardian article. However the X-Men star doesn’t mind, and in a recent interview with The Advocate he’s even described himself as ‘flattered’ by it.

Even at the time, he didn’t seem to mind, as he joked on Twitter that he had, “like, five or even SEVEN hetero friends and we totally drink beer and eat lots of chicken wings!”

Now he says, “I wasn’t going to get all upset and stuffy about somebody being a little bit careless in their research. Or frankly who had looked at some of the evidence and made an assumption.”

He adds, “Indeed the first contact I had was from Ian McKellen, who sent me an email saying, ‘Congratulations!’ And I accepted the congratulations and said, ‘I think this is a very distinctive honor that I’ve been awarded.’”

The former Jean-Luc Picard also feels that his supporting gay rights isn’t surprising, saying “I think this is where the theater is such an appealing world, because it embraces everything and always has. So there was never a moment where I made an intellectual choice that I would be a supporter of gay civil rights. It was always a natural and uncomplicated choice.”